


Hidden Connections

by superdanganisland



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Canon Divergence, Crack Treated Seriously, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-19 20:31:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4760009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superdanganisland/pseuds/superdanganisland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuzuryuu learns that some memories are best left forgotten.</p><p>(AU in which literally everything is the same except the video game in chapter 2 is a yaoi dating simulator.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden Connections

**Author's Note:**

> This was an idea that came up somehow in a conversation and I couldn't let it go. Please don't actually take this seriously.
> 
> ((apologies if the formatting is messed up))

The “hidden connection”. That was their motive.

The arcade machine, brightly colored and eerily out-of-place in the shadow of the large bomb it sat under, was meant to entice anyone who passed by to come give it a try. To reach the end, and find the truth it revealed, was meant to be enough to get them to act. Playing the game would be the difference between life and death in this messed-up field trip of mutual killing.

So why the _fuck_ was he playing some stupid goddamn dating sim?

After waking up in the middle of the night, Kuzuryuu had found himself flipping around in his bed, looking for any excuse to get up before the morning announcement went off. He had already exhausted nearly every form of entertainment in his room – there were no books, no TV to watch, and definitely no one that he wanted to talk to at 5 AM. This level of boredom had to be illegal.

Still, there was one thing he still couldn’t shake from his mind:  the arcade machine. Monokuma had made it explicitly clear that whoever played it first would hold a distinct advantage over the others, and as such, he wanted to make sure that person would be him. So like the lone wolf he was, after a quick glance around to make sure the coast was clear, he began his trek to the game case to give it a shot before the others could get their dirty hands on it first.

The title screen caught his attention first: “Twilight Syndrome: DOKI DOKI PANIC!!”, splashed with hearts and bright colors, wasn’t quite how he was expecting this horror feature from 1996 to look like. This was supposed to be a creepy game, right? Well, maybe it still kinda was, in a roundabout sort of way. Obscure video game knowledge was obviously not the yakuza’s personal forte, so he’d leave the worrying about minor details to Nanami. After all, it only made sense that Monokuma had tampered with the game to turn it into his motive.

Now, his primary concern was just not getting caught. While the unnatural glow of the screen made his presence rather obvious, as long as no one else was awake, he’d be fine, and the only other sound that caught his ears in the early dawn hours was the drone of cicadas from the surrounding trees. Kuzuryuu sent a cautious glance over his shoulder, checking one last time to make sure that there was no one around to see him play such an embarrassing excuse of a video game, and then turned his attention back towards the screen.

[WARNING!!]

[This game is intended for mature audiences only. Proceed at your own discretion.]

Tch. Whatever. All he had to do was finish it, right? There had to be some kind of important information that would be revealed at the end to make it worth his time –  maybe coordinates to a stash of weapons, instructions on how to get off the island, or even the other students’ darkest secrets. That would at least give him some kind of edge if his classmates tried to antagonize him like they’d done to Komaeda – then again, Komaeda didn’t have a personal bodyguard to deal with either.

[-PRESS START-]

And so with the tap of a button, the first level loaded up, lovingly rendered in all the glorious blocky detail of a 32-bit era console release – in other words, none, as the characters on screen had all been animated as horrific polygonal nightmares with some cheap textures slapped on. Was this seriously supposed to pass as photorealistic? The characters could barely even be distinguished besides their height. The graphics themselves weren’t that strange, considering the year it was made, but what _was_ strange was that the characters on screen all appeared to be male in a game that was known for its nearly all-female cast.

_Huh… wasn’t this series supposed to be about all girls…? Ah, fuck it, why do I even care?_

He clicked endlessly through what seemed to be mostly filler text, and as he continued through the first few conversations, more and more inconsistencies seemed to arise. As even more evidence of its shoddy creation, the characters had just been reduced to a single personality trait, namely, generic high school stereotypes – there was the jock, the goth kid, the tsundere, and so forth… and to top things off, the protagonist was an unlikeable asshole who seemed to have something nasty to say to everyone he met. This bizarre iteration of the game obviously had nothing to do with the original _Twilight Syndrome_ at all.

Once he had made it to the end of the first day, the characters began pairing off into sets of roommates. Eventually, he was left behind with one other boy that had a personality that completely clashed with his own.

          BOY C: Looks like we’re the leftovers, huh? My name is [NAME REDACTED]!!! Don’t forget it for as long as you live!

          BOY A: Whatever. I didn’t ask for a roommate, but it looks like I don’t have a choice.

          BOY C: C’mon! Let’s head back and get settled!

          BOY A: Fine. Just don’t talk to me, alright?

From that point on, things just kept getting stranger and stranger. On day 2, there was still no mystery, but instead, a whole lot of pointless dialogue, with no plot and no cohesion to what was happening on the screen at all. It was just more of the same bullshit and getting progressively worse. Also appearing on the second day was the option to ‘hang out’ with certain characters, and even give them gifts. Since he didn’t care to think about it too much, he spent most of the time pawning all his junk items off onto his useless roommate, who gladly accepted everything he offered.

This was nothing he’d ever seen in a mystery game before. Paired with the rest of what he’d encountered so far, he was starting to get the impression that this was a little more than your standard paranormal adventure story. These characters were all getting _way_ too friendly with each other for his own liking even though they had all just met a day ago. Honestly, it was all so unbelievable it was making him sick.

Suddenly, one of the boys brought up the topic of a slumber party– a slumber party?! What were they, twelve?

          BOY B:  Hell yeah! Maybe we can get some of the girls to come too! We can do it at your place, right, [BOY D]?

          BOY D:  What–?! Why my place?

          BOY E:  I sure don’t have any objections. They say person’s living space is a reflection of their soul. I’d love to see the hope which resides inside of you.

Ugh! Why was the dialogue so corny?! 

It was right around the exact moment that a loud sigh escaped his lips that a voice suddenly manifested itself behind his back.

“Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Wha–?!”

He jerked around to find Monokuma, standing right at his feet. “I said, are you enjoying yourself?”

Kuzuryuu sneered, turning his body back towards the screen. “Leave me alone. I didn’t come out here looking for company.”

“I worked hard on this thing, you know,” Monokuma said, lifting himself up onto the console to view his progress. “I put a lot of first-hand research into it. The critics say it’s one of the most realistic portrayals of the relationships between high school boys that’s ever been depicted in media.”

“The critics…? What–” he started to argue, but had to force himself to stop. “–No, you know what? Fuck off. I’m busy.”

“It’s pretty engaging, right? Award-winning? Game-of-the-year material?”

He took in a slow breath. “…No. It’s stupid.”

“Stupid?!” Monokuma exclaimed. “What’s stupid about it?”

“It… it doesn’t make any sense!” he shouted, gesturing at the screen. He had no idea why he was even bothering to continue with this argument. “This doesn’t have anything to do with anything! Why am I even playing this?!”

“It’s relatable content!” he said, holding up his arms in mock aggression. “It’s a reflection of real life! The inner struggles of every high school boy! It’s that vulnerable time in your life, when you gotta ask yourself the big, important questions! Like–”

“It’s completely unrealistic!” he spat. “There’s like, five guys all fawning over one dude! What the hell is this?!”

“It’ll all make sense when you finish! The twist ending will really getcha!”

Kuzuryuu shook his head, increasing his grip on the controls with a loud sigh. “It’s fine. Just fuck off and let me finish.”

“You’ll change that attitude of yours! You’ll be singing my praises to everyone!”

“…I said, _FUCK OFF!”_

Kuzuryuu whipped around with a raised backhand and Monokuma hopped away, settling near the bushes to watch him from afar with a sneaky little grin on his stupid bear face. There was something about his giddy tone that Kuzuryuu didn’t trust, but he’d be damned if he’d let that asshole push his buttons. All he wanted to do was just get this stupid thing over with. Once again, he took the controls and got back to work.

_Right, so… the ‘slumber party’. Let’s do this._

          BOY C: I CONCUR!!

          BOY F: Then it has been decided! Let us commence the grand immolation at the arrival of our hallowed dusk!

          BOY G: Ufufu! Leave the food to me!

The scene faded out, and the words DAY 4 flashed onto the screen with an unpleasant sound effect. Wait, day 4? What happened to day 3? Either way, it would have probably been more pointless bullshit anyway. Screw it.

At the start of fourth day, the scene was no longer in the boy’s dorms, but had cut to a pair of girls standing outside the school. Ah, maybe this was where the real story would pick up finally. But instead of the beginnings of a paranormal investigation, Kuzuryuu watched as a very strange conversation unfolded in front of his eyes indeed.

          GIRL A: I don’t know, I’ve just got a bad feeling about it.

          GIRL B: I doubt they’ll find out. They couldn’t have seen who it was after I cut the power. Don’t worry about it so much.

          GIRL A: I can’t be seen with these! What if they think I’m some kind of pervert?! We have to get rid of them!

          GIRL B: We can’t get rid of them! We can use these as blackmail, remember? It’ll totally tarnish his reputation! If that jerk’s little sister picks on you again...

          GIRL A: Th-That’s…

          GIRL B: C’mon, I’ll keep them in my room for you. We’re friends, right? It’ll be our little secret.

          GIRL A: …Alright.

The next scene took him to what looked to be the girls’ dorms. His own character, up to some shady business himself, was rifling through some bookshelves in the room.

          BOY A: That girl… I gotta find out why she’s been avoiding me!

And then, as the boy removed some papers from the shelf and looked at them, he took a few staggering steps back...

          BOY A: Th-These are…!

He ran out of the room, and the scene went dark, and the only thing that could be seen on the screen after that point was the sinister message:

_I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!!!_

...

[GAME OVER]

[–down five–]

That… that was seriously it? There was absolutely nothing that he could even make sense of in that entire game. It was all complete and utter nonsense. He looked back at Monokuma, who was standing nearby with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“So… so now what? I finished it. What do I get?” Kuzuryuu asked.

“Upupu! Good, good!” he laughed. “But you haven’t reached the true ending yet! You get nothing until you make it there!”

“…The true ending?” he said, his face tightening into a scowl. “Oi, oi, you didn’t say anything about having to play this more than once, you bastard!”

“So maybe I didn’t!” Monokuma said cheerfully, and pulled a tan envelope from behind his back to taunt him with. “But see, whoever reaches the _true_ ending first gets a sweet prize! Hmm, could it be this? I wonder what’s in here? Maybe some of your lost school memories, perhaps?”

He narrowed his eyes at the mysterious package. Whatever was inside, it had to be the “hidden connection” that Monokuma had mentioned before. “…You’re definitely not lying, right?” he asked warily. “That’s the motive, or whatever? The first person who finishes gets the envelope, right?”

“Yep!” he said. “And I’ll give you a hint: DOWN FIVE is a secret code!”

It took a few moments, but Monokuma’s hint had helped him realize what the cryptic phrase probably stood for. As the sun began to peek over the horizon, he knew he’d have to work fast, or the others would soon wake up and notice he was missing from the hotel. Just a little bit more progress, and the prize would be his – he’d just have to suffer for it a little bit longer.

He returned to the title screen, and implemented what he hoped was the right code:

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

A quiet _*ding*_ indicated the correct entry. Moments later, the screen changed to red, and a large chunk of text appeared before him on a lazy pixelated background.

**TWILIGHT SYNDROME: TRUTH EDITION**

[It began with a game. A ghastly game, right there inside the school. It was just supposed to be a simple act of petty revenge until things got out of hand.]

[A pair of intruders crashed the slumber party, and turn, found much more than they bargained for. Not wanting to face the brunt of the boys’ anger, they kept the evidence to themselves.]

[But soon, tragedy came visiting. One of the girls, GIRL B, was found killed by an unknown assailant.]

[What happened in that school? It started out with a kiss. How did it end up like this? It was only a kiss. _It was only a kiss!]_

…and then a set of commands came up for Kuzuryuu to choose from.

[Would you like to take the fast route?]

[Y/N]

Well, that answer was obvious. He highlighted the YES option and gave it a click. What bad could possibly come from it?

[DAY 3]

 _There_ was day 3. When the scene came back, all eight of the boys were arranged in a neat circle, sitting cross-legged around some unidentifiable object in the middle of the group. It looked like they were having some kind of strange ritual, or playing a game, or… wait. That was a fucking bottle.

_What the…?! This better not be what I think it is!_

It was. They were playing spin the bottle, and there was not one girl in sight.

          BOY B: Are you sure none of the girls wanted to show up? Like, what if they walk in on us doin’ this?

          BOY C: Let’s not worry about the girls tonight. This challenge will strengthen the manly bond between us! Now, who’s going to begin?

          BOY H: As your leader, I shall do the honors.

One of the larger boys stood up and made his way to the center of the circle to give it a whirl. It spun around for a few seconds, finally landing on one of the others, who immediately shot up from his seated position to commence the sinning.

          BOY G: It would be my pleasure! Come here, I’ll show you how we do it in Azabu!

          BOY H: Just a peck, please.

The two characters leaned in, and after a brief connection, they returned to their seats. This was so, so incredibly painful to watch. Granted, it was still polygon hell, so there wasn’t much detail, but this was way more than he thought he was signing up for when he started playing this damned thing.

The bottle was spun again. This time, it landed on his own character, who was less than thrilled at being selected. At least it was a relatable feeling.

          BOY G: Ohhhohoho!! It’s been a dream of mine!

          BOY A: Don’t push it, asshole.

Watching his own character be forced to kiss one of the other males almost felt like he was being personally violated. The two brought their faces together for an even shorter duration, coming to an abrupt end when Boy A gave a forceful push to get the other off of him, and then split ways. Once they had returned to their seats, a new set of instructions popped onto the screen.

[Now it’s your turn! Who would you like to give a kissaroo to? Tap A to spin the bottle!]

Fuck this. There was no way he was going to keep playing Monokuma’s weird BL game. Kuzuryuu let his hands drop from the controls and promptly spun around to leave, but found the bear waiting right behind him as he tried to walk away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Monokuma asked casually.

“I’m leaving,” Kuzuryuu said, trying to sidestep around him. “I’m not playing your stupid game anymore.”

“You gotta.”

“No, I don’t. This isn’t a motive. I’m not falling for this.”

“You _gotta._ ”

“Stop it! I’m leaving!”

Monokuma unsheathed his claws, blocking Kuzuryuu’s escape path. “As your headmaster, I’m ordering you to finish, and you’re not allowed to go against my commands! Finish what you started, or I’ll have a gatling gun installed in your doorway to greet you the second you step back into your room!”

“…Ughh!” he groaned, and began heading back towards the machine with a flustered red tint on his face. “Fine! I’ll finish it, alright? I’m only doing it for the prize and NOTHING else, so if this is a waste of my time, I’m gonna fucking _kill_ you!”

He gripped the controls more tightly than ever, pausing to let his temper cool off before he continued. He glared at the screen, the text from before still displayed prominently at the bottom:

[Tap A to spin the bottle!]

The moment of truth. He tapped the A button, and watched the bottle spin round and round, holding his breath, and finally…

It stopped on boy C. Oh, his roommate. God dammit, why did he even remember such an asinine detail?

          BOY C: Gyahaha! Excellent! As roommates, let us form a meaningful connection that will last the entire school year! Let’s show them how true friends bond!

          BOY A: A meaningful connection…? H-Hey–!!

          BOY C: WITH PASSION!!!!!

The much larger boy C lifted Kuzuryuu’s character into the air, and then, the unexpected…

*click!*

The scene went black. A series of flashes went off, then returned to darkness, with only a strange message in the center of the screen that read:

_You have seen the truth..._

[GAME OVER]

[-true end-]

………

Kuzuryuu furrowed his brow, staring at the game over screen with an expression of utter bewilderment on his face. What the _fuck_ was that?

Well, it looked like that was the end. Finally, his personal hell was over. He turned around and began walking towards Monokuma, where he hoped to fetch his prize and run, but unfortunately, it looked like it the bear wasn’t going to let him make off that easy.

“Wait, wait!” Monokuma waved his arms to get him to stop. “You need to watch the credits!”

“…Oh, give me a fucking break, already," he groaned, circling back towards the machine with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. Please, just someone put him out of his goddamn misery. As he leaned up against the console with both hands, he watched as the credits made their way up the screen.

[Any similarities to real people or events are entirely intentional.]

MONOKUMA SOFT

Produced, written, developed, and programmed all by Monokuma. And then, an ominous list of names…

[CAST]

…

KUZURYUU

SOUDA

NIDAI

HINATA

KOMAEDA

TANAKA

HANAMURA

TOGAMI

KOIZUMI

SATOU

...Okay, sure, so it was a _little_ strange that he had added a bunch of their surnames to this old video game, but it was nothing that he needed to be concerned about... right? He eyed Monokuma, who looked a little too giddy for his own good. “Yeah, so… that’s just a list of us. What’s the deal?”

“Upupu! Do you know why you’re at the top?”

With a bit of hesitation, he spit out a weak answer. “Because, err… I played it first?”

“Look closer!”

It was always something. At Monokuma’s direction, he squinted at the screen, and found one last string of text hidden away in the corner which nearly made to do a double take.

[…as themselves.]

“Wh-What the...?” he stammered, then turned around to confront the bear. “Is this some kind of joke, you sick bastard? What the hell is this?!”

“It’s not a joke, it’s real!”

“…Huh?!”

“Hey, didn’t you know you were the star of a _non-fiction_ video game?” he said, and pulled out the envelope to show him again. While Kuzuryuu clutched at his tie, Monokuma flipped open the seal, removing the contents from within and spreading them out in front of his face to inspect before handing them off. “Remember that little thing I said about _lost school memories?”_

He began to sweat. “B-But… that’s fucking stupid, I-I mean… _that_ would mean…”

Without skipping a beat, Monokuma held out the photos for Kuzuryuu to see, and what was printed on the paper in his hands was enough to nearly make him faint.

A poorly lit photograph of two teenage boys, highlighted only by the flash of a camera, engaged in a passionate kiss before a gathering of their peers. This was not your typical spin-the-bottle peck on the lips, but full-on tongue-in-mouth action, arms wrapped around one another’s bodies, locked tight in lustful embrace. God, it was shameless. However, as vulgar as it was, the scene itself was not the worst part; it was the people that were involved.

It was him and Nidai.

A scream caught it his throat. Kuzuryuu staggered backwards, refusing to let himself look at the photos for even a second longer lest he burst into flames on the spot. Once he finally managed to process what his eyes were seeing, he could still only choke out a half-hearted rebuttal.

“Th-That… it’s photoshop!” he argued, his face already flushed well into the infrared range. ”It’s gotta be! You did this yourself, you son of a bitch!”

Monokuma could only laugh at his response. “Nope, it sure isn’t! You think bears even know how to use computers?”

“S…Someone did, then! Someone faked these!” he sputtered. “These aren’t real! They can’t be! All that lost memory crap, it’s bullshit!!”

“Wishful thinking, isn’t it? Oh, but this isn’t even the best of it! Hey, if you’d have finished the long route, you would have gotten to see the slow burn of your blossoming high school relationship! And even better, the super bonus end!”

“…Super bonus end?!”

“Yeah, the part where you guys all banged!”

One could almost hear the sound of a record screeching wildly off track. “Wh-what did you say…?”

“Yeah, when you banged! Like, _super_ banged. You and everyone! All at the same time!” Monokuma said, in a tone that was much too cheerful for the words that were coming out of his mouth. “You’re quite the power bottom, you know that?”

A second scream became strangled in his throat, this time slipping out in the form of a deep, guttural choking sound. It was like he was living in some kind of hellish nightmare that he’d wake up from any second. His mouth tried to form words, anything at all to shoot down what he was saying, but he could not find the strength to utter one sound.

“You wanna see the pics?”

“…N-NO! FUCK off! And _FUCK YOU!!”_  He rushed towards Monokuma to rip the file out of his hands, but the bear danced away from his outstretched arms.

“Oops! Too late!” he teased, pulling them out of his reach. “These are my own copies, which I can’t give away! Someone else got here first!”

His eyes widened. “S-Someone else…? Are you fucking kidding me?!” he growled. “You said I was here first, you jackass!”

“Wrong! I simply said that whoever got here first would get the file!” he said, as Kuzuryuu’s cheeks began to broil. “And you didn’t, so tough shit!”

“B-But… the photos!” he stammered.  “Someone else here has seen them?!”

“Oh, it’s more than just that! The person who got here first just happens to be the one who took these photos to begin with!” he said. It was clear that the bear was egging him on, but Kuzuryuu was far beyond the point of rational thought to care. “And wouldn’t you know, they’ve got them in their possession right now! Who knows, maybe your ‘childhood friend’ will be the next to see them?”

 _Anything_ but that. He’d never be able to live it down. As he considered his options, the gravity of his situation began to weigh down on him.“...Who got here first?!”

“I can’t tell you directly, of course,” Monokuma said, “but I’ll give you a hint: Take a closer look at your cast list!”

It only took a quick glance at the credits to find out which names didn’t belong. Of the two that stood out, only one of them was here on the island with him, and considering that person’s SHSL skill, it all made sense. The answer was obvious.

“That _bitch!”_ he yelled through gritted teeth, and left Monokuma’s side one final time to make a mad dash back to the hotel. “I’ll FUCKING _KILL HER!!”_

**Author's Note:**

> literally tho imagine the trial


End file.
